It was no real surprise that the Devils named Zach Parise captain today.

Except to Parise.

"I found out before practice. We had a meeting and I found out then," Parise said. "I was surprised because I didn't know it was coming. Nobody gave me the heads-up before the meeting so I was pretty surprised when Pete (DeBoer) said it."

Ilya Kovalchuk and Patrik Elias will each wear an 'A' as alternate captains.

"The last time I was captain was in Squirts when I was eight," Parise said. "I think I was in high school, too. A little bit of experience in high school but I guess this is a little different than that. It's on a little bigger stage but I've been around some pretty good leaders before. You learn a lot from those people."